Saturday, April 18

I'll be back to Boracay with A, the gang and the kids on May 14th until the 17th. We'll be flying through Seair and will be staying at The Tides, the same hotel I stayed the last time my friends and I went there. Hamy won't be coming with us much to my dismay. I think it would be really fun but A didn't like the idea of Hamy traveling that far. So, I didn't push it.

What can I say? I loved The Tides! I don't mind going back. I don't know about Seair though. We usually fly through Cebu Pacific or PAL so this would be our first. Seair came with this Tides peak season promo. It's pretty reasonable so we took it despite the travel arrangement. I hope we made the right decision.

Anyhoo, Best and I will attend this workshop on May 2, a five Saturday sessions on basic photography which makes the trip more exciting for me. The fact that I'll be able to shoot and practice the things I've learned from the workshop at one of the beautiful places on Earth is enough to give me insomnia! Oh gosh, I can't wait!

Last time, my iBook was giving me some scares by suddenly switching off. It has been resolved by resetting the PMU. Now, Dino won't charge or won't even turn on.

We went to PowerMac Center at Greenbelt to have it checked. I was blaming the faulty charger and the battery life the whole time but according to the technician both are working fine and the problem might be the Power Manager. Dino was sent to San Juan to be diagnosed further. I have to wait 5-7 days for the result. Ugh.

In a desperate attempt to understand it better, I went to Apple to research and here's what I got:

"The Power Manager is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that is usually on the logic board of the PowerBook and iBook. As the name implies, it is responsible for power management of the computer. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.

Over time, the settings in the Power Manager may become unusable, which can result in operational anomalies with the computer. Examples include not turning on, not waking from sleep, not charging the battery, or not seeing the AC Adapter, among others."

I'm wishing and hoping and thinking and praying that the problem does not involve replacing anything inside the computer chip. I can't afford a new logic board let alone a new laptop boo hoo! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Tuesday, April 7

This may sound strange but my Alice Crocs shrank about half a size smaller. I dismissed the idea that my shoe size got bigger because that's even crazier. I haven't worn it for a long time but it was just in a drawer together with my other shoes. It was the perfect size when I bought them from my SIL, what have gone wrong?

Apparently, it's not a weird thing at all. Crocs does shrink when exposed to high heat. A Google fact that will never be known to a Crocs owner had the shoes not shrink. Crocs website says extreme heat can cause warping, and that exposure to too much sun can cause them to fade but it never mentioned anything about shrinking.

I was about to call Customer Care to shoot a complain when I stumbled upon this article saying that shrunken Crocs can be unshrunk by washing them in hot water to loosen up the material and then immediately wear them for a while. There are also other ways such as putting them in a boiling water for less than a minute or throwing them in a clothes dryer with some towel for 2-3 minutes. These methods are said to be effective in loosening up the Crocs material which allows them to re-stretch when you put your foot into them and walk around in them immediately. If you want to ditch them to someone who is 2 size larger than yours, putting 2 or 3 of super thick socks before you slip your foot into them will do the trick. The hitch? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, because different pair of Crocs are made from different batches of materials blah blah blah.

Oh well, there's no harm in trying. I'll give the "washing in hot water" method a try and will probably try the "putting on socks" thing on Hamy's Crocs to re-stretch it a little. It starting to get smaller on her hehe. And if none of these methods work, I swear I'll send the shrunken Crocs back to China.

Friday, March 13

It suddenly won't turn on. I know it's a dinosaur but I need it and it has all my files!

I was getting nervous every second. The battery was fully charged and it was even plugged in to the wall when it shutdown on me without warning. I switched it on but it won't power up. I removed the battery pack and put it back in, pressed the power button and was relieved when it started up. However, after a minute or so it went off again. I did the same steps and this time it was on for 30 minutes.

I went to the all mighty Google to search for an answer fast. I luckily found an article that has the same dilemma and it prompted me to reset the Power Management Unit (PMU). It sounds technical but really all you need to do is shut it down, hold Shift+Ctrl+Option and the power button simultaneously for 5 seconds and then power it up. It worked! Hallelujah.

For a minute there I thought my iBook was dying. I hope I have it completely fixed. If not, I wish it's not a logic board failure or else I'm dead. I heard it's frighfully expensive to have it fixed. Looks like I have to be extra careful with Dino from now on. Oh and yeah backup all the files every chance I get. Whew.

Presenting the new iPod Shuffle. Remarkably smaller than an AA battery and can actually store up to 1,000 songs! How can a small thing like this holds a thousand songs? Beats me. Well, they wouldn't call it "the world's smallest music player" for nothing.

All of the controls is on the earphone cord making it easier to navigate. You can now switch playlists with it compared to the old Shuffle who randomly pick songs for you and its VoiceOver feature lets you HEAR the name of the song and artist playing. It can speak 14 languages: English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. Cool.

The new Shuffle has stainless steel clip that can be securely attached anywhere and can have it engraved, too. It also comes with an aluminum case in silver or black. Double cool.

Nice! I would not mind getting this for $79 but with gazillion things inside my bag and its teeny-weeny size not to mention my short memory make it impossible not to lose it or break it. Hell it might get thrown along with the trash. Yikes! Scary thought. I'm still happy with my dilapidated but reliable iPod "lolo" Video, thank you very much.

Wednesday, March 11

"Mga Kababayan" was the first cassette tape I bought and it was also the last. I remember I had my Uncle buy it for me since I was only 7 years old then. I had to save half of my allowance just to buy myself a copy and be part of the cool craze. Yes, I was a big fan back then. Come to think of it, I never stop being a fan. I still love his music.

Did you know he's also into photography? And man, he's one good shooter. He bagged two trophies for the Camera Club of the Philippines 2008 Annual Awards and the photo above was one of the winning shots.

Just like everybody else, I was completely shocked hearing about his death. I didn't know he was under a very critical condition. Did some research and turned out the overall cure rate for patients with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) is likely lower about 20-45% survival rate.* According to news, he got the worst of its kind.

Reading his blog where he chronicled his battle with cancer was heart-rending. I admire his courage and determination. Despite all the pain he went through, he didn't lose hope and stayed positive all the way. He did fight a good battle.

Francis Magalona will surely be missed but he will always be remembered as his music and legacy lives on. I'm happy that he won't be in any more pain and suffering now that he's at home with his Master.

We offer our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the Magalona family. May you rest in peace FM.

Wednesday, February 18

From February 21 to 26th everyone (over 18) is invited to turn over beer and other food items to the Crumpler Store at Bonifacio High Street in exchange for free bags. In case you’re wondering what will happen to all the beer from the sale, Crumpler will serve them at a party on February 27th, 8pm at Warehouse 135a. One free bag gets you one ticket to the party.

Crumpler's Australian owners have been running the same kind of sale back in their homeland and also in their stores in New York and Toronto. It was such a sellout but will Pinoys bite the bait? I'll probably would if they have camera bags on sale.

Monday, February 16

Yep, I'm still alive! I just took a long break from blogging. I've been extremely busy the past few months.

Okay, let me go through some of the things that I haven't had time to write about:

Our New Year's resolutions. We had health and fitness on top of our list along with saving a bit more for the future pledge. My own personal resolution was to be more organized and I'm trying all my best to stay on track. A on the other hand said he'll quit smoking for good but then he keeps on putting it off. Well, he's not completely ready yet.

Our four-day trip to Bangkok. A and I went to Bangkok for a convention. We didn't get to tour outside BKK much to our dismay but we had a good time. We gorged ourselves on two things without guilt: food and shopping!

My very own DLSR. Finally! We bought a Canon 450D on our trip to BKK. I was originally leaning towards the Nikon D40x or the D60 but upon holding the 450D, I found it easier to navigate. It was a good buy, too! We got it 17% lower than its market price here. It also had a free 8GB memory card. And to top it all off, we went home with at least 2,000 baht worth of tax refund. Sweet deal. Oh, it has a name. A named it Muymuy. Hehe.

Our first time at Bag of Beans, Tagaytay. And here I thought it was just a small coffee corner. I heart the tenderness of their Roast Beef. The yummy gravy sauce went great with it. A loved their huge and tasty Porter House Steak.

Our second wedding anniversary. We didn't plan something big because we already had a pre-celebration thing at BKK. We just had dinner at Outback because A was craving for steaks again. We're supposed to go bar hopping after the dinner but A was a little under the weather so we decided to continue the celebration at home. We brought Cuervo Gold and Vodka Ice packs home and drink the night away!

My Hamy's first time at Enchanted Kingdom. It was super fun! My baby enjoyed all the rides. She even wanted to try Anchor's Away. We'll be back on summer.

Our first trip to the beach this year. We went to Canyon Cove (aka White Cove) to celebrate my father-in-law's 62nd birthday. I was surprised by the development. The place was awesome! I loved the big pool. The rooms were not in mint condition though which was a little surprising for something that went under reorganization but that's okay. It's still lovely.

These are photos from our business trip to Bangkok. A and I had to attend a convention in BKK and we had the pleasure to stay in one of the most beautiful five-star hotels in Asia, the Centara Grand. Aside from the fact that buddhist shrines are everywhere, Thailand is abundant in flowers and fruits. I love Thai's magnificent architecture. Their temples, palaces, and even the airport are simply works of art. Sawatdee Kaa means Hello in Thai.

A Wife and a Mommy who finds solace in photography, books and feel-good movies. She dreams of traveling the world to experience different cultures, people and way of life; and to take wonderful photos of course. A is her loving husband and Hamy is their precious baby girl.